A LAFD firefighter fights to save a home in the Santiago Estates area of Sylmar this morning. The fight was unsuccessful as at least a half a dozen homes were lost when water pressure was lost on Tuesday, Dec.5, 2017. (Photo by Mike Meadows for the Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Jaime Leon stood on a sidewalk in the Santiago Estates subdivision Tuesday afternoon determined to learn if the Creek fire had devoured his Sylmar home.

As he made his way to Gavina Avenue and Via Santa Barbara, a firefighter stopped him in his tracks. There were still hot spots to be snuffed out and equipment to be moved into the neighborhood. It was just too dangerous.

“We don’t want anyone to get hurt,” the firefighter told him.

Robert Romero evacuates his home in Santiago Estates as firefighters try to save homes during the wind-driven Creek fire in Sylmar on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2017. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG) . .

A LAFD firefighter fights to save a home in the Santiago Estates area of Sylmar this morning. The fight was unsuccessful as at least a half a dozen homes were lost when water pressure was lost on Tuesday, Dec.5, 2017. (Photo by Mike Meadows for the Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

LAFD firefighters fight to save homes in the Santiago Estates area of Sylmar on Tuesday, Dec.5, 2017. (Photo by Mike Meadows for the Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

A LAFD firefighter fights to save a home in the Santiago Estates area of Sylmar this morning. The fight was unsuccessful as at least a half a dozen homes were lost when water pressure was lost on Tuesday, Dec.5, 2017. (Photo by Mike Meadows for the Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Fire watch volunteers Dan Formanowicz, left, and John Acuna stand on fire watch at the intersection of E. Santiago Canyon Road and Jamboree Road in Orange near Irvine Regional Park as high Santa Ana winds blow early Tuesday morning December 5, 2017. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Fire watch volunteers Dan Formanowicz, left, and John Acuna stand on fire watch at the intersection of E. Santiago Canyon Road and Jamboree Road in Orange near Irvine Regional Park as high Santa Ana winds blow early Tuesday morning December 5, 2017. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)

LAFD firefighters fight to save a home in the Santiago Estates area of Sylmar on Tuesday, Dec.5, 2017. (Photo by Mike Meadows for the Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

A firefighter passes the remains of a burning home in Santiago Estates during the wind-driven Creek fire in Sylmar on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2017. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG) . .

A firefighter passes the remains of a burning home in Santiago Estates during the wind-driven Creek fire in Sylmar on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2017. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG) . .

A holiday decoration adorns a light post as a home burns in Santiago Estates during the wind-driven Creek fire in Sylmar on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2017. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG) . .

So Leon, 35, waited as Santa Ana winds howled along the canyon. And then he recalled the harrowing escape from his home several hours earlier:

At 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, Leon, his wife and their four sons, 10 months to 17 years old, were fast asleep.
Suddenly, a car’s honk.

Leon peered out a window. It was his property manager in a car in front of his home, laying on the vehicle’s horn. Soon, other neighbors were beeping their horns as well and also going door-to-door to help with evacuations.

“We look out for our neighbors,” Leon said.

Leon looked out and saw smoke and ash, and then a wall of flames making a beeline for the neighborhood.

“It looked like a movie,” he said. “It’s unreal when something is coming right at you.”

Leon quickly grabbed a box of personal items and a firearm and fled with his family and their 4 -year-old American bulldog, Chica.

They took refuge at a family member’s home, where they watched television coverage of the fire, hoping to get a glimpse of their neighborhood.

“We wondered if our house was still standing,” Leon said. “We just moved here in January.”

Tuesday afternoon, he still didn’t know.

*****

In the 41 years Deborah Moraza has been a volunteer with the Red Cross, she has never had to evacuate an evacuation center.

Until Tuesday, thanks to the Creek Fire.

“We started off at the Sunland shelter early this morning,” she said. “It’s a senior center, too, so we had seniors and evacuees.”

As they were finishing settling in, the seniors were told to evacuate. The Red Cross evacuees soon were given the same orders. In all, a couple of dozen had to move.

“Once you get that signal, you go,” Moraza said. “So we packed up.”

The volunteers and evacuees followed Moraza, the only one with functioning GPS on her phone, to the Branford Recreation Center in Arleta.

Inside, the basketball court had been covered by a large blue tarp. Chairs were set up for people steadily trickling in, their bundled babies, children and pets in tow. Cots were being set up and more food was soon on its way.

City workers parked a large trailer in the lot to house pets. Some evacuees parked their cars in the lot and just camped out inside.

Overall, the mood was solemn. But at least the cold and wind could be left behind, and the flames wreaking havoc.

Susan and Brad Slagle, who have lived in Santiago Estates for 28 years, counted at least eight homes destroyed. The couple surveyed the damage Tuesday afternoon as they made their way back to their own residence that was untouched by the fire’s fury.

Brad and Susan Slagle were among the residents of Santiago Estates who evacuated Tuesday due to the Creek Fire in Sylmar Photo by Scott Schwebke

“It’s devestating,” Susan Slagle said. “It’s a tight community.”

The Slagles were awakened by a phone call around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday from a friend alerting them to the fast-moving fire.

Susan Slagle looked out a window and saw that the neighborhood was encircled by flames.

“I yelled, ‘Brad, get up now,’ ” she recalled. “Outside was a sea of orange.”

The Slagles quickly joined neighbors, going house-to house to help people evacuate.

Scott Schwebke is a native of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and was previously a breaking news and multimedia reporter for the Ogden, Utah, Standard-Examiner. He has also worked at newspapers in Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia. A graduate of Brigham Young University, Scott is the Register's 2014 Beat Reporter of the Year. He has won more than two dozen journalism awards including the N.C. Associated Press News Council’s O. Henry Award for a lengthy narrative on the brutal home invasion slaying of a nurse and a Katie Award from the Dallas Press Club for a feature story on a UFO investigator. Scott has covered everything from methamphetamine trafficking cops to hurricanes and has accompanied police on undercover drug buys. He also provided an award winning, eyewitness account of the execution of a North Carolina death row inmate and obtained an exclusive interview with the ringleader of a brazen escape from the Orange CountyJail involving three maximum security inmates. Having spent two years living in England including Liverpool, he is an avid Beatles fan and memorabilia collector. He and his wife, Lisa, reside in Anaheim.

Alma Fausto is a crime, breaking news and public safety reporter for the Register. She has worked for the Register since 2013. Previously, she lived in New York City while studying at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she covered the growing Mexican immigrant population in the city. Alma has also lived and studied in California’s rural and agricultural Central Valley. She’s an Orange County native from Costa Mesa, and in her spare time likes to read, visit libraries and drink good gin.

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